News & Brews September 25, 2024
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Survey: Pa. Teamsters overwhelmingly back Trump
Even as the National Teamsters union has declined to endorse either Trump or Harris this year, the Pa. Teamsters are backing Harris—at least, the union’s leaders are. But according to an informal survey of union members, more than 65% of Pa. Teamsters members back Trump, while more than 31% support Harris. We’ve long said union leaders don’t actually represent their members’ views. For example, National Education Association President Becky Pringle recently suggested only 1/3 of her union’s members are Democrats. Yet, 98%of the union’s political donations this year have gone to Democrats.
Partisan site runs ads posing as media
Broad + Liberty reports, “A Potemkin news site less than a year old is promoting nearly a dozen Democrats running for the Pennsylvania General Assembly using paid social media posts apparently designed to give the viewer the impression the message came from an authoritative news source rather than a partisan political committee.” The “Morning Mirror has spent somewhere between $57,000 to $70,000 on the Pennsylvania ads, creating between 3.1 to 3.6 million viewer impressions” on Facebook and Instagram. But the Columbia Journalism Review describes the Morning Mirror as “[a] quasi-local news site whose operators sought a news media exception to dodge campaign finance regulators.”
Another mail-in ballot ruling
With the rules still being written (and/or rewritten) six weeks before the election, we can only hope Pa. doesn’t become a national laughingstock in counting ballots this year. Yesterday, a panel of the Commonwealth Court upheld a Washington County judge’s order that the county must “notify any voter whose mail-in ballot is rejected because of an error — such as a missing signature or missing handwritten date — so that the voter has an opportunity to challenge the decision.” The order also says these voters must be permitted to vote via provisional ballot.
Dem state senator denies posting racial slurs
Following news that a Twitter (now X) account run by Democrat State Senator Jimmy Dillon (Philadelphia) posted racial slurs year ago, Dillon is claiming it wasn’t him. The Inquirer reports that a spokesperson for Dillon said other folks also had access to the account to post. “However,” the story continues, “Dillon had posted in the first person during the time period of the offensive posts, including photos and videos of himself and his family.”
Pennsylvanians to testify on Trump assassination attempt
Yesterday, the Congressional Task Force investigating the attempted assassination of former President Trump in Butler, Pa. announced its list of witnesses for the first hearing on the attempt, which will be held tomorrow. The list includes:
- Mr. Edward Lenz: Sergeant, Adams Township Police Department, Commander, Butler County Emergency Services Unit
- Mr. Drew Blasko: Patrolman, Butler Township Police Department
- Mr. John D. Herold: Lieutenant, Pennsylvania State Police
- Mr. Patrick Sullivan: Former United States Secret Service Agent
- Dr. Ariel Goldschmidt: Medical Examiner, Allegheny County, Pa.
The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. and will be live-streamed (link to come). Meanwhile, today the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released its much-anticipated interim report on the July 13 assassination attempt. Read it here.